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Find Oli's Keys
Oli gathers Ray, Izwick, Jorin, and Theo for a quest to find a key to the locket around Oli's neck. They have convened in the common room of the Dancing Owlbear. Theo is already drinking, even though it's the crack of dawn. Sarissa, a pale-skinned woman with white hair and a long flowing blue dress, appears. She asks Oli if they're ready. "As ready as I'll ever be!" Oli responds. The Stormguard members follow Sarissa out of the tavern, and she leads them out into the street and left into an alley, then makes another turn and leads them into an even darker area. The sun hasn't yet reached this alleyway, which is beginning to seem more like a dark tunnel, with a cold breeze emanating from it. Theo casts Light on Ray's lantern, and as they go through the darkness they exit into a completely different space. It seems like a city alley filled with dilapidated stone buildings, covered with creeping black plant life. The party has arrived in Dawnfall, a city of feykind. The party has now arrived in the Feywild. Oli sticks close. Oli's keys are in the possession of the Wicker Sisters. They are old and when together, very powerful. Sarissa advises trickery or bribery, but doesn't advise head-on confrontation. She warns the party the Wicker Sisters will twist their words. Ray puts out his lantern. Oli walks forward and knocks on the door. Turgid Pat answers the door. Oli and Ray cautiously enters, while Izwick boldly enters and sweeps a bow. Another hag is present, smaller Rotting Bertha. Oli mentions he is searching for a key that matches his locket, and Izwick is given a pastry, which he pretends to eat. Oli offers a well-made pocket watch in trade for a key. As Lola Bonewhittle, a blue-skinned, white-haired pale hag, comes down, the party is offered more pastries. Lola begins the bargaining: for age, first born children, sex... until the sisters realize they could bargain for their eye. Lola points them to a tree where the eye should be buried. It was stolen by another half elf. The party leaves the hags' house to journey to the tree. The streets become more dilapidated, it gets colder, and the houses are in less good condition as they move forward. Oli gets the feeling they're being watched, from the right and left in flickering movements. They happen upon a monolith of stone, covered with vines. Despite this, it is clearly not natural. It is surrounded by a ring of trees. As Oli steps in, the trees begin to shift slightly, as if a breeze is blowing through them. The trees appear to be made of metal, and have very sharp leaves. There is some writing, but no one can read it. Despite best efforts, the etchings are not in celestial. Izwick kneels and begins to break the surface of the earth with his daggers. The trees stop moving as soon as this happens. Two barrages of razor sharp leaves ping straight toward him, giving 20 slashing damage. The group fights the trees, managing to succeed. (See encounter breakdown). Healing is done. Izwick continues digging as others are being healed. Jorin investigates the writing, which seems to be in Elvish script. As Izwick continues to dig, he unearths a round object that is about the size of an apple. The eye has an iris of a deep green color, and pulsing veins. The eye seems to be encased in resin, or lacquered. Oli inspects the eye, which seems to be looking back at him. Jorin looks around for grabbable branches and manages to find a walking stick length branch. Ray collects a dozen leaves, Oli three, which he wraps in normal leaves before placing in his bag. Izwick also collects some leaves. Theo heals Izwick and Jorin. They take a short rest. After the rest, the group heads back toward the hags' house. There, Jorin brings his coldiron branch into the house, prompting the hags to screech and demand that they leave. Intimidated by the cold iron, Lola Bonewhittle hands Oli a wooden key. Oli hands her the eye. They exit quickly. Nobody remembers the way back, which is problematic. So the Stormguard says Sarissa's name three times, with Jorin setting his stick some distance away first. In exchange for the trip, Izwick offers that he live to the ripe old age of fifty, after which Sarissa may smite him and take whatever is left of his soul, in exchange for passage for the group and a magical dagger. Oli offers a pocketwatch. Theo offers a favor in the future in exchange for safe transportation back, which Sarissa accepts. On the way back, Ray and Jorin have completely forgotten everything that happened in the Feywild. The group arrives at the same instant they left, in Commissar Tarkus' office. Tarkus remembers Jorin Helmborn, but does not seem upset or surprised they have arrived. Oli tries to excuse the group, but Tarkus does not want to let old nobility leave the city. Jorin manages to convince him that he has not been in Stormgate and has been trying to keep out of his hair. They do tell Tarkus they were in the Feywild, and Tarkus consoles Jorin on the loss of his eyes, then asks for the rest of their names. Everyone states their full name, except Ray, who says he hasn't had a last name in a long time. Tarkus calls his guards to question them further. While this is happening, Theo attempts to get Tarkus to let them go, stating he is a diplomat from Khorashahr. High-ranking Bluecoats start to walk in, but Tarkus holds up a hand. Theo and Ray decide to pretend Ray is Theo's servant, and Tarkus orders the guards to take the Stormguard cohort away to jail. Oli whips the wooden key out of his cloak and sticks it into his locket. Suddenly, Oli is plunged into darkness, seeing a humanoid figure with branches growing through him and a big ornate necklace at his neck, with a circular gold medallion at its center that is glowing brightly. There is utter silence. It leans forward and asks what Oli requires: leaving the premises without harming their reputation in Stormgate. The tree branch creature rewrites fate and sets the Stormguard in an alleyway. Only Oli and Theo remember what happened. Everyone else is confused. The key is gone. Oli and Theo give them a rundown of what happened, with the exception of Theo casting Guiding Bolt on Jorin, and other stupid things that Theo did. The End Encounter breakdown Round 1 * Ray moves forward and inspires Izwick: "Get the fuck out of there, Izwick!" Then Ray holds his fireball until Izwick is right in front of Oli. * Jorin moves up a step and casts Fire Bolt at a tree, and critical hits. * Izwick runs as fast as his stout halfling legs will take him, then casts Fireball. The trees have advantage on saving throws, but despite their failure the trees take very little damage. * The trees' roots start to squirm and the trees move, then make razor-leafed branch attacks. Theo casts Warding Flare to impose disadvantage on the trees' attack rolls. Izwick is hit with 24 points of damage, but they miss Jorin. Izwick is knocked unconscious. The second tree attacks Ray, dealing 23 points of damage. * Oli casts Blight on one of the trees, and they take 32 damage. * Theodoros casts Fireball at 4th level, and one of the trees becomes quite bloodied. Round 2 * Ray disengages from the tree next to him, then hangs out next to a non-sentient tree to reach Izwick at a later date. Then Ray casts Fear at both of the trees. However it seems that metal trees are immune to such a condition. * Jorin casts Shatter, which one of the trees saves spectacularly. Another seems to have died because it does not show up in later combat. * Izwick miraculously stabilizes and regains a hit point. * The tree does its leaf branch attacks, one at Jorin, and one at Ray, who uses cutting words on the total damage done. Jorin takes 25 points, Ray takes 19 points of damage. The tree attacks once more... hitting Ray for 24 points of slashing damage, leaving him with exactly one hitpoint. * Oli Branchlight moves forward and yells angrily. He blights the tree. * Theo contemplates how to murder everyone, then decides to cast Guiding Bolt, which hits both the tree and Jorin, who is now glowing. Round 3 * Ray disengages and starts running. However, the trees have the Warden's Reach feature, which means that disengagement doesn't work, and their reach is 15ft. Ray uses his reaction to dodge. * Jorin draws his sword and smacks one of the trees, dealing 6 damage. The temperature drops. He smacks again, slicing chunks of metal from the trunk. * Izwick does a double dagger attack, but his weapons are nonmagical and thus no damage is done to the metal tree. * The tree uses its Flaying Leaves, which everyone must do a dexterity save to. Izwick uses his inspiration, not taking any damage. The rest take 28 damage, and Ray and Jorin are down. Jorin's sword is next to Izwick, still glowing. * Oli casts Moonbeam on the tree, which succeeds its constitution saving throw. The large metal tree's trueform is that of a large metal tree. * Theo steps out of line of sight of his allies, then casts Guiding Bolt on the tree again. This time he manages not to hit other members of the Stormguard. The Guiding Bolt hits, blasting a hole through the middle of the tree. The tree falls over and becomes cold iron timber. Round 4: Death Saves * Ray succeeds. * Jorin succeeds.